If this were an article written by a newcomer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and posted on a small blog, one could understand the ignorance implicit in a title that continues to depict Palestinians as violent. But it was written by Ethan Bronner, the New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem, a Jewish American married to an Israeli whose son is now serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.
What Bronner’s title, Palestinians Try a Less Violent Path to Resistance, says is that Palestinians, all of a sudden, in spite of evidence to the contrary, are just turning away from violence (think suicide bombing). The long history of nonviolent Palestinian protest, the recent repression of peaceful demonstrations in Bil’in and Nil’in and elsewhere, the arrest of prominent peace activists, and military raids on the offices of peace activist organizations like the International Solidarity Movement or Stop the Wall are not mentioned.
